ORC Week 6: Overhauling my home office FINAL REVEAL

It’s here, it’s here!!! The sixth and final post of the Fall 2019 One Room Challenge and I actually FINISHED my home office / design studio overhaul (yay!). I honestly couldn’t be more thrilled with the results…

These past six weeks have been a whirlwind of sanding, building, painting, cursing, designing, styling, sewing, more cursing, cleaning, organizing, but also SO MUCH FUN! It was what I needed to get back into a creative flow and now I’m feeling all sorts of inspiration and motivation to finally finish my living room (which extends to the right of my home office), plus revamp a few other spaces in my home…stay tuned! In the meantime, let’s take a little stroll down memory lane with where my home office began just a few short weeks ago…eek!

The before

Whew, glad that’s over! Hard to believe I lived with this crazy clusterf#*! of a “creative corner” for nearly SIX YEARS!! But seeing where it was makes me appreciate what it’s become even more…

The after

The motivation

The motivation behind overhauling my home office and creating more of a functioning design studio all started with the quote (via IncBig) pictured above: “Don’t quit your daydream.” A little over a year ago I took the leap out of the corporate marketing world and into the life of a creative freelancer and honestly, I haven’t looked back. It’s not that the past year and a half has been easy (because it’s definitely had its moments), but I’ve truly never been happier, lighter and more clear about my future, even with all the unknowns and uncertainty entrepreneurship brings. Because for me, turning my daydream — designing bright, happy, colorful spaces — into a reality is what lights me up.

After working on several types of projects this year, both within the marketing and event realms (my professional roots) and dabbling in client-based interior design and styling (my passion), I’m thrilled to share that I’m officially moving forward with my design / styling / marketing business for Airbnbs! Through strategic space planning, creative DIY’ing and curated sourcing, I create cozy, eclectic spaces that are not only eye-catching to guests perusing HUNDREDS of Airbnb listings, but also deliver on function and hospitality, too, leading to more bookings at higher rates and reviews that continue to sing their praises. More to come on that front…

Having a dedicated space to not only create and design for clients, but to also dive back into my artistic roots with drawing, painting, jewelry making and sewing, makes my heart so, sew happy! And you just can’t beat the commute (wink, wink)! Plus, I love how even though I clearly defined the office with paint and a made-to-look-like-a-built-in shelf, it ties in with the existing living room style and feels like an intentional extension of that space (those pops of pink are EVERYTHING for me!)

The inspiration

While the rest of my house is somewhat neutral (for now), I wanted this corner to be FILLED with color, playful patterns and a bright and cheery disposition where you can’t help but smile when you walk into it (view the original mood board here). And you know what?! Literally every morning, when I open my bedroom door and I’m greeted by this view (below), I am instantly in a good mood (which is saying a lot, because even though I get up before the sun, I am sooooo NOT a morning person!)

A recap of what I did

• Decluttered, decluttered, decluttered!!!
• Put up a fresh coat of creamy white paint (the same custom color my landlord had done 6 years ago), then painted the bottom two-thirds Filmy Green by Sherwin Williams
• Built a custom shelf to run the length of the main wall between both windows and painted it in the same minty-gray color as the walls
• Designed and built (with the help of my friend Kevin) the rounded edge shelf that sits above the file cabinet with a beautiful plant on top
• Cut + sanded a piece of birch plywood to use as my desk (which sits atop a vintage Danish modern base)
• Created a mood board using an old cork board (and I mean olddddd) that I covered in leftover fabric from the Roman shades I made
• Made custom Roman shades for the two windows flanking the desk
• Painted the file cabinet a lovely lilac (On Location by Behr)
• Painted the rolling cart a punchy periwinkle-lavender hue (Periwinkle by Behr)
• Installed a pegboard, thread spool holder + file sorters

Sources

Chair
Desk base (vintage / similar here)
Desk top (birch plywood)
Thread spool rack
Mood board (DIY’d using old cork board + this fabric)
Pegboard + pegboard accessories (shelves, clips, clear containers, white container, hooks)
Items on pegboard (pencil holder vase, tape dispenser, color wheel, gold stapler, gold scissors, red notebook)
Yellow clock
Everything is an experiment print (DIY’d + printed at FedEx / frame is from HomeGoods)
Chandelier print (DIY’d with photo I took + printed at COSTCO) / birch frame)
Vase on top of shelf
Plant pot (old from HomeGoods / similar here)
File sorter above file cabinet
Fabric for custom DIY’d Roman shades
File cabinet (old / painted with On Location by Behr)
Rolling cart (painted with Periwinkle by Behr)
Wire basket w/fabric bolts (old from HomeGoods / similar here)
Wire basket w/drawing + sketch pads (old from HomeGoods/ similar here)
Gold trash can (old from Target – it’s actually a vase that I’m using as a trash can / similar here, here + here)
White + gold floor lamp (old from HomeGoods / similar here)

That’s a wrap!

And that’s all folks!! Thank you so much for following along (and sending encouraging notes + messages along the way) these past few weeks as I transformed my cluttered office corner into a cheerful and functional design studio. I hope you’ve enjoyed the process as much as I did and that it inspired you to tackle a room or project of your own!

Lastly, a BIG, huge THANK YOU to my friend Kevin (an incredibly talented and hard working general contractor in Sacramento) for helping me build and install the shelves!! Couldn’t have done it without you, buddy.

– S A D Y E E V Y N R E I S H

P.S. In case you missed ’em and want to see the full progression of the space, here are the posts from week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4 and week 5!